Entering into God's Rest, the Church at Smyrna - Audio
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
[ Silence ] After two. [ Silence ] Beginning in verse eight. [ Silence ] Then to the angel of the church in Smyrna, right. These things say at the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works in tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are of the Jews and are not, that are of the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried. And ye shall have tribulation in ten days, but be thou faithful into death, and I will give thee the crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirits say of unto the churches. He that overcomeeth shall never or not be hurt by the second death. Shall we have a word of prayer together? Our gracious God and Father, speak to our heart today. We pray that we might go forth from here with that reassurance way down deep in our heart, if so beautifully shared, an assurance that can only come from entering the land of rest and promise. Help us to take that step for it's in Christ's name, amen. The letter to the Christians at Smyrna was a letter that would be written not just to a local church existing in the end of the first century, but a letter that was written to all of God's people for all times, but especially to a group of God's people who would live from the first century to the third century, and who would know cruelty and violence and sadism and persecution and suffering unlike any other group of Christians in all of history. This was truly an age of great suffering for the church. As we shared many of those things last week, and we talked about the suffering and the agony that Christians went through, and I even went to describe much of that suffering with you in the many forms of torture and punishment that they endured. It was interesting the reactions that we got. I reacted by feeling very sorrowful, very sad to realize that Christians would have to go through such suffering, and I felt guilty, too, living in such a land with so much abundance. I felt convicted that we don't have to do that. We don't have to in our day and age see our children and our husbands and our wives and our loved ones, not just humiliated, but cruelly tortured. I was saddened, but my sadness and the sadness
Transcription truncated.
Choosing to enter into God's rest